Breadcrumb

Find the best web browser for your business

SHARE

TWEET

SHARE

SHARE

Your web browser is likely to be one of the pieces of software you use most. But as many people don't give a moment's thought to which is the best web browser to choose, we explain what to look for when picking the best web browser for your business

What is a web browser?

A web browser is the software you use to access websites. You're probably using one to read this. Most computers come with a web browser ready to go, and it's common for people to just use that.

In fact, many people don't realise their web browser is separate to their operating system, and they can use a different browser if they like.

The process of identifying the best web browser for your business has virtually no risks. Most web browsers are free, so you can chop and change before settling on the one you prefer.

Having said that, there may be benefits to standardising the browser used on your company devices. This makes it easier to keep your up to date and helps you reduce the chance a web browser could conflict with other software. It also makes it easier for employees if you operate hot-desking to standardise software across your business.

What's the difference between web browsers?

In the past, choosing the best web browser meant comparing packages that were vastly different in some areas.

Browsers often had noticeably different interfaces. More fundamentally, they sometimes interpreted HTML code differently. HTML is the language that websites are built from, so this created headaches for website designers and users alike. Websites could look quite different depending on which browser you used.

These days, the main browsers are all pretty good. Microsoft Internet Explorer - derided for years as slow and prone to security problems - is now fast and stable. The other main contenders (Safari, Firefox and Chrome in particular) are similarly dependable.

That means the main differences come in areas like security, privacy and add-ons.